KADNINE

Blog Maintenance...

2011-12-14T00:09:00.002-05:00

... is never done. Even for a semi-retired blogger like me. Tightened up the blogroll, deleted or changed a few dead links, and fixed an annoying Flickr account problem. I should really offload those older files onto a new platform. Does anyone know a reliable, free/low-cost image hosting service? My bandwidth usage is VERY small.

I'm Sorry To Say...

2011-10-20T17:30:00.002-04:00

... but the comments section of the Kadnine blog will remain closed for the foreseeable future. I simply cannot figure a way to halt the relentless spamming, and I won't have ads for porn on my blog. EVER.

If you have a comment or suggestion, please email me. The address is to your left.

Good Art Ain't Cheap, Mr. President

2011-10-20T16:45:00.006-04:00

Those who can draw and paint, draw and paint. Those who can't, hire those who can, but preferably at market rates, please:

"The Obama campaign’s request for submissions says that it “is seeking poster submissions from artists across the country illustrating why we support President Obama’s plan to create jobs now, and why we’ll re-elect him to continue fighting for jobs for the next four years.”

According to the [Graphic Artists Guild,] the award for the selected artists has no actual value, unless the recipient sells it. The campaign estimates the signed artwork’s value would be approximately $195. The guild’s pricing guidelines suggest that the proper compensation for such artwork is approximately $4,000."

But I fully expect that some true believer will still unicorn his way into top consideration for no pay at all.

Gallup: Support for Mary-Jane Tops 50 %

2011-10-18T03:33:00.004-04:00

I've been saying for 20 years that we're ten years away from decriminalization. Perhaps now I finally get to be right? AllahPundit's theory:

"It may be that as people warm up to the glorious libertarian principle of “I don’t like it, but if it doesn’t affect me, whatever” vis-a-vis gay marriage, it’s informing their thinking on unrelated issues like marijuana too. But I don’t know; my own views might be coloring that. What am I missing here?"

I think a resurgence of libertarianism is indeed responsible for this Gallup poll result. For the record, I personally don't use marijuana, it's just that I don't have a problem with those who do. So, like AllahPundit, my own views might be skewing my judgment here. My major vices are TV, movies, and the Olympic Summer Games.

UPDATE: Ilya Somin wrote about the poll yesterday saying:

"If we get to the point where 60 or 70% of the public supports legalization, I predict that the status quo is likely to become politically untenable even in spite of interest group lobbying. And, if present trends continue, we might well reach 60% support within the next 10–12 years."

So I'm not the only one throwing around ten year predictions, I just don't know if we're right on the math.

An important note on internet filtering

2011-10-12T10:11:00.006-04:00

Online giants like Google, Facebook and NetFlix are actively feeding you content you already agree with. Watch.

To be clear, I don't necessarily have a problem with this practice. Successful companies are, by definition, in the business of making their customers feel happy with their content. But, like the news (as those of us who speak a coupla languages and occasionally check out foreign language news-feeds know) the info out there isn't always homogeneously synchronized.

It's incumbent upon the information consumer to seek out multiple information sources. Google, Facebook, and NetFlix (while all excellent services) ain't gonna do the hard work for you, folks.

(Via: Vanderleun)

Earthquake Relief - Japan

2011-03-14T08:32:00.003-04:00

For those readers who frequent Amazon, note how easy it is to give a donation to the American Red Cross, right on their homepage. Seriously, yer card is already on file and yer donation is literally "one-click away."

Plenty of good charitable organizations out there to give to, of course, so pick your choice. But I have been consistently impressed with Amazon's brand of easy karma banking.

Key Hide

2010-08-18T12:03:00.006-04:00

New video made fresh this morning...

There's an old joke that goes something like...

"Once there was a reporter doing 'on the street' interviews with random persons in New Orleans. He went up to this grizzled old construction worker and asked, 'Sir! I'm from the local news station, and we're asking people what their favorite modern day invention is. Would you care to answer?'

The old man scratched his beard and cast his thoughts about. Finally, he answered, 'Well... I'd have to say it's this Thermos bottle right here.'

'And why is that?' asked the reporter.

'Well in the hot summers it keeps my iced tea cold, cold, cold. And in the winter it keeps my soup hot, hot, hot,' the worker replied.

Said the reporter, 'Yes, that's what it does. But why do you say that's your favorite invention?'

The old man looked around conspiratorially and whispered in a hoarse rasp, 'How do it know!?'"

When I posted this video this morning to youTube, it automatically offered up the song I used for sale at Amazon.

HOW DO IT KNOW!?

UPDATE:

Apparently my vid is blocked in all but the following countries:

Afghanistan, Aland Islands, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Congo - Democratic Republic of, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See (Vatican City State), Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Micronesia - Federated States of, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, North Korea, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, United States Virgin Islands, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, West Bank, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

And, frankly, I'm cool with that. Way to go Goo-Tube. Go on with your outside-the-box licensing policies!

Looking forward to this

2010-08-16T23:28:00.001-04:00

[via: Dawn]

Home Made High Altitude Fun

2010-06-15T14:13:00.001-04:00

Pacific Star II from Colin Rich on Vimeo.

(via:Darleen)

Haitus

2010-05-16T23:46:00.002-04:00

This blog will resume after these commercial messages:

The opposite of "iamb" is "trochee." I've been trying to remember that word for fifteen years now.

Timothy Olyphant can act! Justified is my new addiction.

Commenting at the Kadnine Blog has not been disappeared, just temporarily shelved 'till I figure out this code-thing they call HTML. I've messed around with it for a more than a decade. Maybe soon I'll get the hang of it.

- Kadnine

God vs. Science isn't the point

2009-10-13T13:31:00.003-04:00

... says this WSJ editorial. Because in practice even the most hard-core atheists will often act as believers when it comes to family. And I say, Thank God:

"Remember Peter Singer? Mr. Singer is the Princeton utilitarian who accepts scientism's view that human beings are not fundamentally different from animals, just more complex. In his thinking, those who cannot reason for themselves or have lost their self-awareness have no real claim to life. Yet when Alzheimer's struck his mother, he paid for care to prolong and sustain her life. The irony is that an act that does him credit as a son must discredit him among those whose principles about life he claims to share.

"To put it another way, while we talk about the clash between God and science, in practice it often comes down to disagreements about man and morals. The boundaries are not always neat. Many Americans who are indifferent to faith will confess they find themselves challenged as they try to raise good and decent children without the religious confidence their parents had. The result may not be a return to religion but a healthy agnosticism about agnosticism itself."

[emphasis mine]

"A healthy agnosticism about agnosticism itself." I've never heard it put that way. But I like it.

Should the goverment stop throwing money into a giant hole?

2009-07-06T10:47:00.003-04:00

"I love the money fires."

David Tabb...

2009-05-16T23:48:00.005-04:00

... remember that name. This serial robo-marketer is clearly operating outside the law here. I myself have received more than ten unsolicited calls.

Millions of Americans have gotten the call.

"This is the second notice that the factory warranty on your vehicle is about to expire," says the recorded voice at the other end of the line. Most people hang up. The machine calls again later.

Michael Silveira decided to strike back. The 22-year-old laboratory technician, who doesn't own a car, says he was getting unsolicited sales pitches as often as twice a day on his cellphone

Millions of Americans receive calls with pitches for extended auto warranties. Lawsuits are pending but one Internet community already took matters into their own hands, Geoffrey Fowler reports.

So last week, Mr. Silveira began calling back an auto-warranty company that has become the focus of an Internet crusade. He left it voice-mail messages that contained nothing but a recording of Rick Astley's 1987 hit song "Never Gonna Give You Up."

Using phone numbers for Auto One Warranty Specialists Inc. that users posted to a Web site called Reddit.com, Mr. Silveira joined dozens of activists who have peppered the warranty company with messages including elevator music, threats and offers of rude services.

"I thought, if you get a bunch of people together, you could blow up their voice-mail boxes," says Mr. Silveira.

The recipient of their efforts is David Tabb, the 42-year-old president of Auto One, an Irvine, Calif., warranty company with 60 employees. He says Reddit users overloaded his phone lines with computerized calls, changed voice-mail greetings on his company's system, and even threatened arson. People have been conspicuously honking outside his home, he says. To cope, he redirected some of the numbers that activists had been calling.

All of this happened, he says, with no evidence that his company had done anything wrong. "Ninety percent of the people complaining about my company have never been contacted by my company," he says. He hires third-party marketing firms to call consumers -- but says he pays a premium to ensure they call only people who have opted in to receiving solicitations. Many warranty calls come from so-called "ghost" phone numbers that make it nearly impossible to determine their origin. Mr. Silveira can't be certain Auto One is behind the calls he got, but he says he came to believe it was responsible for some of them after reading the Reddit postings.

Like most vigilantes, consumers who decide to take matters into their own hands with auto-warranty touts are in legally murky waters. Leaving harassing messages could be considered a threat, and might be prosecuted by authorities in some states.

[...]

All of this happened, [David Tabb] says, with no evidence that his company had done anything wrong. "Ninety percent of the people complaining about my company have never been contacted by my company," he says. He hires third-party marketing firms to call consumers -- but says he pays a premium to ensure they call only people who have opted in to receiving solicitations.

I'm calling shenanigans on Davie here. I didn't "opt in" for anything you have to sell. What I got was unwanted calls.

Michael Totten reports from Sadr City

2009-04-09T12:22:00.002-04:00

I was there when it was still called Saddam City. It's great to see such progress.

“I can take you to a hookah bar and chai shop,” he continued, “where we've given them a grant and they made drastic improvements to the outside. That had a great impact because it showed what U.S. forces are willing to do for Iraqis. It's a cultural and social hub of this neighborhood. Many people see what we've done for them. We didn't just make an investment with one person, the business owner. There may be hundreds of local men in the area who go to this hookah shop every week, and we made an impact with all of them.”

Built to hold a million unwanted Iraqis, Sadr City is now the most modern neighborhood of Baghdad.

Animation of the Lambs

2009-03-19T23:44:00.003-04:00

Beer Wars Live - April 16th

2009-03-14T16:14:00.002-04:00

A premier screening of a new documentary film followed by a live chat with craft brewers and Ben Stein? I'm all sorts of stoked!

Ice Storm 2009

2009-02-08T09:53:00.003-05:00

We were without power for 48 hours, and were lucky/well prepared so that it was a relatively minor inconvenience. My heart goes out to those who are still without power, and even more sorrow goes out to the families who lost loved one in the storm.

I've read on several blogs this week wondering why Kentucky hasn't been thrown in President Obama's face as his Katrina, or why his weak response hasn't been demonized in the press the way Bush's response to New Orleans was. And while I can understand the frustration over the all too obvious double standards of the MSM, these bloggers seem misguided to me. Jeff Taylor at Reason, however, hits all the right notes:

The reality is that even after the emergency management reforms allegedly implemented after Hurricane Katrina, help from far-off Washington still does little in times of fast-moving crisis. This view may be heresy in the age of federal bailouts, but it is still true.

To put the ice storm response in perspective, remember that it was not until the Clinton administration that the federal government was even expected to deal with winter storms. It took Clinton's shrewd Arkansas crowd to identify the political potential of turning states and localities into federal dependents via the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and related federal disaster assets. Soon enough state and local officials were petitioning Washington for any and all weather-related expenses. The result has been millions of dollars flowing out of Washington.

[...]

Natural disasters arbitrarily bring death and destruction. They act beyond the control of mortal man and his institutions, no matter how grand and well-intentioned those institutions may be. Furthermore, the iron law of all disasters is that it is nearly impossible to get aid quickly to people in need. Two corollaries flow from this reality. One, that it is always better to evacuate potential victims than to attempt to rescue certain victims. This, of course, is precisely what did not happen in New Orleans or in the path of the ice storm. Two, given that outside help will be unreliable at best, local ad hoc relief efforts are almost always more effective.

Enter David Strange, the enterprising figure the Associated Press calls the "generator man." Strange drove the hills and hollows of backwoods Kentucky delivering and setting up generators to those without power—at a $50 to $100 mark-up over retail. Willing customers included a dialysis patient and a powerless 80-year-old woman dependent on an oxygen system. They called him a "godsend," although Strange prefers "jack of all trades" or even "hustler." To Adam Smith, he would be recognizable as an agent of the invisible hand.

FEMA is by it's own nature slow and cumbersome, local response is always faster and more effective, and private citizens can be the best help of all. Read the whole thing.

Also, it helps immensely to plan ahead for these emergencies at the individual level. Not enough Americans think about these matters in the age of flatscreens and Bu-Ray and Wii consoles and Iphones. The prepared family incurs the least hardship, and the best comprehensive disaster planning guide I've found is this five part diary at Daily Kos. It's carefully organized according to the logic that only comes after years of serious thought. I highly recommend it. (And yes, I'm linking Kos. It's that important.)

Obama: Change means outspending Bush

2009-02-06T09:32:00.005-05:00

President Bush set a number of records in deficit spending over the last eight years: No Child Left Behind; 15 billion for AIDS relief in Africa; the first President in history to federally fund embryonic stem cell research; and the single biggest entitlement program in American history, the Medicare Prescription Bill.

Last night in Williamsburg President Obama said,

"But come on, we're not — we are not going to get relief by turning back to the very same policies that for the last eight years doubled the national debt and threw our economy into a tailspin.

We can't embrace the losing formula that says only tax cuts will work for every problem we face [Damn that parsimonious Bush and his stingy Republican ways!- ed]; that ignores critical challenges like our addiction to foreign oil [Historical note: Obama is the second president to publicly call our dependence on cheap oil energy an "addiction",] or the soaring cost of health care, or falling schools and crumbling bridges and roads and levees."

What's Glenn's running joke? They told me that if I voted for McCain I'd get a third Bush term. And they were right!

Booooooo! bAD form!

2009-02-05T20:43:00.009-05:00

The first in a new Kadnine Blog Series in which I highlight truly awful advertising gimmicks.

So, I'm working late and feeling peckish. I need a snack to tide me over till dinner so I can concentrate on the tasks thrown up before me on my computer screen. I don't want to be there after hours, but hey! Duty calls. I buy a Snickers bar from the vending machine and settle back in at my desk. On the front it reads, "SNICKERS" in the usual size and font. On the back side, it reads, "NOUGATOCITY" in the same font. Inside the wrapper is the "definition":

"Nougatocity /nu-gat-a-si-tE/ (noun). A heightened yet fleeting state of accomplishment that makes you realize how unbelievably unmotivated you normally are."

I imagine the ad execs at Mars, INC just sitting around the ol' brainstorming table asking themselves "who is our core customer base?"

And all they could come up with was self-loathing slackers with low self-esteem and no impulse control? And this was given the go ahead? Really?

Why not just go with, "SNICKERS: ~~It Satisfies~~ Yer never gonna lose the weight, so why bother trying?" Or, "Try our oblong lozenge of shame! Now with even more nougaty condescension!"

The upside to our downturning economy

2009-02-04T18:50:00.003-05:00

It's pretty thin gruel, but this anti-anti-smoker will take whatever he can get:

Economic fears snuff out smoking bans

By KRISTEN WYATT
In this economy, lawmakers are more willing to let people smoke 'em if they got 'em.

As recently as last year, many states and major cities seemed ready to adopt complete indoor smoking bans. But the movement to kick all smokers outdoors has stalled as the recession worsens and lawmakers fear hurting business at bars, restaurants and casinos.

"This economy, it creates a little more sympathy for the business person. So when we say this is going to put us out of business, believe me, they're listening," said Mike Moser, executive director of the Wyoming State Liquor Association.

Twenty-three states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, have indoor smoking bans covering bars and restaurants. No one else has adopted a ban in the early weeks of this year's legislative sessions.

In Colorado, lawmakers are considering easing the rules after they banned smoking in most bars, restaurants and casinos.

New Jersey put off a smoking ban for Atlantic City casinos after five of 11 casinos warned they could file for bankruptcy by year's end. In Virginia, a proposed statewide ban stalled this year after lawmakers expressed concern about the economy.

Moser's group opposes an indoor smoking ban that has been offered in Wyoming. After businesses raised objections, state lawmakers last month exempted bars from the legislation.

In cities that have banned smoking in bars, "it's just killing them," said Mike Reid, owner of a wine bar in Casper. Reid voluntarily banned smoking in his bar, but opposes the forced ban as president of the liquor association.

"When someone builds a business with a clientele that smokes, they should be able to go in there and smoke," Reid said.

(Via: The Anchoress)

Baffled am I

2009-01-18T14:51:00.003-05:00

Today I'm utterly baffled by what I just saw. Standing on the back deck, smoking a cigarette, I witnessed a pickup truck drive by with a twenty-foot log strapped down to the trailer... with an out-board motor attached at the back end. I have no way of knowing if the driver is on his way for some Sunday yachting in January, or simply delivering both a log and a motor to the same destination.

I wish I'd had my camera.

Naomi Klein: Half-wit

2009-01-11T12:18:00.004-05:00

Smart enough to recognize that the boycott is an effective measure, dumb enough not to recognize it's only effective against parties which value stability and progress:

The relevance of the South African model is that it proves [boycott] tactics can be effective when weaker measures (protests, petitions, backroom lobbying) fail. And there are deeply distressing echoes of apartheid in the occupied territories: the colour-coded IDs and travel permits, the bulldozed homes and forced displacement, the settler-only roads. Ronnie Kasrils, a prominent South African politician, said the architecture of segregation he saw in the West Bank and Gaza was "infinitely worse than apartheid". That was in 2007, before Israel began its full-scale war against the open-air prison that is Gaza.

Why single out Israel when the US, Britain and other western countries do the same things in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Boycott is not a dogma; it is a tactic. The reason the strategy should be tried is practical: in a country so small and trade-dependent, it could actually work.

[Emphasis mine]

To be clear, Klein here is advocating that our western world (a world made rich by economic trade) affect the economic destruction of a "small and trade-dependent" country whose success is based on the same model. She's not just anti-Israel, she's anti-western-civilization. That her self-loathing opinions are published at all is a testament to our tolerance of fools like her. Even in a world-wide recession, she's in no danger of losing her job by writing this. Damn but we're rich! Rich enough to support a leisure-class of critics who pine for our destruction.

(Via: Hot Air)

P.J. O'Rourke on "the failed Obama Presidency"

2009-01-11T11:24:00.005-05:00

From The Weekly Standard:

In the language of politics there is only one translation for the phrase "hope and change," to wit, "big, fat government." Mr. Obama, if you're going to give us big, fat government, you need to be a big, fat politician. You need to be a Tip O'Neill, a Teddy Kennedy, a Richard Daley, a Bill Clinton at the very least. And you don't seem to be a big, fat anything--literally or otherwise. You seem to be . . . smart and organized. Like Jimmy Carter!

So we may speak without compunction of the failed Obama presidency.

Clever stuff! He's just riffing, of course. Playing with words in the way that only comes natural to a select group of talented commentators. But the words, "It's only funny because it's true," are cold consolation to a lover of limited government such as myself.

Early on in that seemingly interminable campaign of '07/'08, Obama declared war on cynicism. But P.J. is out to prove that the cynics have the upper hand in that battle.

For myself, I wish our new President well. I'm taking a wait-and-see attitude before launching my own critique, round about Jan 21st. Then it's on like Donkey Kong.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T11:04:00.001-05:00

2008: The year in stupid bans

2008-12-21T11:35:00.002-05:00

From Reason TV

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T12:17:00.005-05:00

UPDATE via Insty: "Every Iraqi soldier I saw this morning wished me a Happy Thanksgiving."

UPDATE: Thanksgiving dinner was a success. Menu items included a turkey and giblet gravy, homemade raspberry sorbet, broccoli casserole, mashed potatoes, spinach and artichoke dip, slow cooked green beans, and ice cream with crock pot spiced apple and bread pudding topping... all from this collection of Weight Watchers recipes. We estimate each plate at about 22 points but tasted more like 102.

Bailouts in perspective

2008-11-25T22:46:00.013-05:00

Also from NRO, this time from Mark Hemingway:

The bailout [thus far] has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:

- Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion

- Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion

- Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion

- S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion

- Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion

- The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)

- Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion

- Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion

- NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion
The only expenditure that comes close is WWII, and even that cost less.

Some staggering numbers, to be sure. But also keep in mind the staggering wealth, the surplus we've enjoyed in recent years as compared to even a generation ago. I'm not worried about the numbers so much as I am worried about Thomas Sowell's assessment about what this "crisis" is really all about:

Amid all the political and media hysteria, national output has declined by less than one-half of one percent. In fact, it may not have declined even that much-- or at all-- when the statistics are revised later, as they very often are.

We are not talking about the Great Depression, when output dropped by one-third and unemployment soared to 25 percent.

What we are talking about is a golden political opportunity for politicians to use the current financial crisis to fundamentally change an economy that has been successful for more than two centuries, so that politicians can henceforth micro-manage all sorts of businesses and play Robin Hood, taking from those who are not likely to vote for them and transferring part of their earnings to those who will vote for them.

And that's what worries me. The raw numbers (while huge) mean nothing or almost nothing, at this point in America's fantastical record of economic success. Weathering the current credit crisis will, IMO, require record-setting expenditures of public dollars simply because we're a fantastically rich nation, and if that's what it takes takes to restore consumer confidence in capitalist America, I'm okay with that. But what will our political leaders take away as the principle lesson from this crisis? That it is better to govern lightly, and give the private sector the freedom to gain or fail, to rise or fall on its own merits? Or that it is better to take away freedoms from the private sector as a safeguard against future crises?

I hope for the former, but fear we're in for another round of the latter. Say hello to the new New Deal.

UPDATE: Case in point - "Obama Chief of Staff Hopes to Exploit the Economic Crisis to Expand the Growth of Government"

Those of us who intend to push back against our would-be government nannies have got to get invigorated now, or else we'll be swept aside by the momentum of Barack's historic win. By nature, I'm not an activist. I don't have an activist's compulsion for public demonstration. But I do intend to observe and point out my observations (both here on the Kadnine blog and in letters to my elected leaders.) It's long been my policy to listen to my elected leaders' words (and the words of their appointees) and take what they say at face value. I don't assume it's some sort of benign code to placate the base. When Obama's Chief of Staff is quoted, "... You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," because it's "an opportunity to do things you could not do before," ... believe him! Why? Here's why.

More Central Planning is always the proposed answer in every crisis. Always. It's human nature. We humans are hard-wired to want to meddle in the affairs of others (and politicians doubly so.) It takes self-awareness, education, and discipline to leave our neighbors alone. It takes instruction from those who came before us to learn that giving in to that base desire to try to run the lives of others is, in fact, a vice. It's a character flaw and not (as too many have convinced themselves,) a virtue. These deluded on both Left and Right believe their only sin is "caring too much." And that's unfortunate.

Also, I'll be watching for an epidemic of mission-creep coming down the legislative pike from the majority Democratic Congress, (aided by many Republicans who just loves them some big federal programs!) Congress critters of all brands use crises to further their pet projects. Remember how we were told draconian new drug enforcement laws were "needed" to win the War on Terror? Yeah. It was fun pushing back then, wasn't it? It worked, too. It can work again.

It's an honor

2008-11-25T19:07:00.003-05:00

... just to have served with the likes of this Marine:

"The biggest thing to take from that day is what Marines can accomplish when they’re given the opportunity to fight," the sniper said. "A small group of Marines met a numerically superior force and embarrassed them in their own backyard. The insurgents told the townspeople [of Shewan, Afghanistan] that they were stronger than the Americans, and that day we showed them they were wrong."

[...]

"I didn’t realize how many bad guys there were until we had broken through the enemies’ lines and forced them to retreat. It was roughly 250 insurgents against 30 of us," the corporal said. "It was a good day for the Marine Corps. We killed a lot of bad guys, and none of our guys were seriously injured."

Michael Ledeen at NRO noted the story earlier today and highlights this quote from a reader:

"There are only two kinds of people that understand Marines: the Marines and the enemy. Everyone else has a secondhand opinion."
Gen. William Thornson, US Army

Best birthday wishes

2008-11-23T10:58:00.002-05:00

... to Lee at Digital Nicotine. May he continue his always entertaining blog for many more to come.

Dick Cavett is still employed

2008-11-15T15:18:00.006-05:00

... proving there's always a market for windbags who talk about the talk-stylings of other people who've actually, um... done stuff. Oh! And a shout out to fellow windbag Maureen Dowd is included free of charge:

The Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla

Electronic devices dislike me. There is never a day when something isn’t ailing. Three out of these five implements — answering machine, fax machine, printer, phone and electric can-opener — all dropped dead on me in the past few days.

Now something has gone wrong with all three television sets. They will only get Sarah Palin.

[...]

And how much more of all that lies in our future if God points her to those open-a-crack doors she refers to? The ones she resolves to splinter and bulldoze her way through upon glimpsing the opportunities, revealed from on high.

What on earth are our underpaid teachers, laboring in the vineyards of education, supposed to tell students about the following sentence, committed by the serial syntax-killer from Wasilla High and gleaned by my colleague Maureen Dowd for preservation for those who ask, “How was it she talked?”

My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars.

And, she concluded, “never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is it a country or a continent, I just don’t know about this issue.”

It’s admittedly a rare gift to produce a paragraph in which whole clumps of words could be removed without noticeably affecting the sense, if any.

(A cynic might wonder if Wasilla High School’s English and geography departments are draped in black.)

Read the rest if you like, but you don't need to. It just goes on in this vein for another 15 paragraphs. Dick has distilled for us here the pure, concentrated contempt that the NYT (and the media in general) has for the Other.

Dick? We "get" the motivations behind those who supported Barack Obama. We also "get" Sarah Palin's appeal. It's you that can't seem to understand us. But I wouldn't presume to blame your educators, because that would just be rude.

I'm putting together a personal 'must see' movie list...

2008-11-09T11:37:00.002-05:00

... and so far this is at the top:

Ahoy! Incoherence off the port stern!

2008-11-08T13:56:00.011-05:00

I just watched the pilot episode of Whale Wars I recorded last night, and I have to admit, it is my new guilty pleasure TV show. This is my Jerry Springer. I look forward to every new, embarrassing episode. That attitude will change, of course, the moment one of these thrill-seeking imbeciles gets someone killed. But until then, pull up a chair and enjoy the spectacle of Berkeley Values on the High Seas. Watching these fools try to square the circle of "non-violent" eco-terrorism and it's being broadcast to millions of viewers? Thank you, Animal Planet. Thank you.

Worth fighting for

2008-11-05T18:03:00.005-05:00

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter on returning the GOP to it's "enduring principles":

While our party has pretended otherwise, this is no ordinary time. It is a transformative time in the life of our free republic. The economic, social, and political turmoil of rapid globalization has created chaos and, thereby, fertile fields for the Left. As Russell Kirk warned in The American Cause during the Industrial Age:

What really creates discontent in the modern age, as in all ages, is confusion and uncertainty. People turn to radical doctrines not necessarily when they are poor, but when they are emotionally and intellectually distraught. When faith in their world is shaken; when old rulers and old forms of government disappear; when profound economic changes alter their modes of livelihood; when the expectation of private and public change becomes greater than the expectation of private and public continuity; when even the family seems imperiled; when people can no longer live as their ancestors lived before them, but wander bewildered in new ways -- then the radical agitator, of one persuasion or another, has a fertile field to cultivate.

Fertile, indeed, are America's fields for the Left.

He goes on to identify the enduring principles of the Republican Party which, if adhered to again, he predicts will restore public demand for GOP leadership -

1. Our liberty is from God not the government.
2. Our sovereignty rests in our souls not the soil.
3. Our security is through strength not surrender.
4. Our prosperity is from the private sector not the public sector.
5. Our truths are self-evident not relative.

I couldn't ask for a more concise manifesto! Frankly I'm tired of voting for big-government centrists as a stupid, half-hearted defense against the big-government Left. I'm tired of feeling dirty when I vote. Give us something to fight for, and not just against, Grand Old Party.

(Via: Hot Air)

"[U]nder a President McCain preferably, under a President Obama if it must be."

2008-11-02T23:30:00.003-05:00

A few minor quibbles aside, this pretty much sums up my own view:

This is a great and greatly enduring country. It flourishes because of the genius of its institutions and the decent and moderate instincts of its people. I look to the American future with confidence always - under a President McCain preferably, under a President Obama if it must be.

I believe America can and will survive either man's administration. Like David Frum, I too am optimistic about America's essential permanence. I am concerned about the potentially lasting damage an Obama presidency could do in just four or eight short years to the free market institutions that have made America the most prosperous nation in the history of history. Seriously now, will someone please explain to me why I need endure yet another big-government fashion fad when it's already been proven to retard American progress?

Milton Friedman had the answer:

A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.

Hey Pocky Way

2008-10-27T00:22:00.001-04:00

I enjoyed this. You might enjoy it, too.

The coveted Kadnine endorsement goes to...

2008-10-18T09:22:00.006-04:00

... John McCain. And here's why:

Preface - Both candidates are flawed in my opinion, but between them one is clearly more preferable from my perspective. I don't much care for horse race politics anymore. The heady, passion filled drive to win more lever pulls for "my guy" over "your guy" tramples all over discussion of deeper issues. Oh, there is still rational debate over policy and philosophy even in election years, but good luck trying to find it amidst the constant shouting. But such is my desire to be an informed voter rather than a naif scooped up by the "Rock The Vote" bus on the way to the poll, that I've shouldered my way through this (insanely long!) election cycle and managed to come to these conclusions.

John McCain - Here is a man who has devoted his entire adult life to public service. 22 years as a Naval Officer, pilot, five years as a POW, and even after torture left him physically disabled, still he devoted his voice to furthering his contribution to public service. It's clear to me by his actions over a long lifetime that he wants what's best for America's future. His instincts are sound. It's his execution skills that need improvement.

John McCain regularly practices the politics of "compromise" (in the best sense of that word. As the old story goes, two women once fought over an orange, and eventually split it down the center. One ate the flesh while the other used the zest in a cake.) He frequently "reaches across the aisle" to find out what the other side's chief desires are in order to be recognized as the facilitator of a win-win deal. For this, he's earned the nickname "maverick." Too often though, while his intentions are refreshingly transparent, his execution lacks a certain savvy that I would prefer to see. Too often he comes back to the Republican base (meaning me) saying things like, "I got that authorization for the border fence you wanted! And all I had to compromise was the funding. Why are you so mad?" Or, "I'm cleaning up the cess-pool of campaign financing! All you have to do is shut up 30 days before a primary election, 60 days before the general. Problem solved! What? Still mad?"

But for all his flaws of execution, America as a whole is still strong enough to weather a McCain Presidency, and may even prosper under it. John McCain 1) has the executive experience (as commanding officer of a Navy Squadron) that Obama lacks, 2) a working knowledge of how Washington actually operates and a desire to improve it (as opposed to Obama's limited experience as a first term Senator,) 3) has promised to remove troops from Iraq after cementing their honor with victory (as opposed to Obama who promises to remove forces ASAP, victory or no, and I need not point out that I'm more than than a little invested in victory after seven months over there) 4) has never voted to raise taxes, and 5) only once voted against a tax cut (out of a belief that during a time of war and no draft,it was consistent with his vote for invading Iraq. He later acquiesced.)

As for Barack Obama - I'm not deaf to the historical significance of Obama's campaign as the first viable (probable?) black presidential candidate. But I'm growing ever more resentful that he initially sold himself to us as the post-partisan, post-racial-divide candidate. As it turns out, research into his scant background doesn't reveal anything new except race. His policy preferences are not substantially different than the old platforms of previous Dem candidates (Kerry, Gore, Dukakis, etc.) I hasten to add that this research was NOT done by our traditional, legacy news media who are more in love with the idea of riding on the coattails of history, than actual, um... facts. The job of vetting Obama was done by journalists working for small-time magazines both left and right leaning, and blogs.

I'm deeply unhappy with the (to my mind) dishonest manner in which Obama has presented himself to us. That's not to say he isn't an ambitious (just as all successful politicians are ambitious,) intelligent, educated, nice guy who wants what's best for the country. I believe he's all of those things. But I'm disturbed by his tactics. I'm disturbed by his... comfort level about hiding things from public view.

He constantly asserts publicly he'll cut income taxes for 95% of us when 40% don't even pay taxes. Under his plan that 40% will get a "tax credit" (read: welfare check) paid for by taxing the upper 5% (i.e. all the evil companies in your 401K portfolio.) More than half of Americans have their entire life savings in the stock market. Obama is hiding the fact that his tax proposals will essentially rob your retirement account to pay for his grandiose social welfare programs.

This is not "change" I can believe in. This is more of the same, "big government is the ultimate solution to all societal ills" type policies that I oppose on general principle.

- Keith

Ouch

2008-10-17T23:57:00.007-04:00

Tacitus on conservative Palin-bashing:

Quick Note to the Elite, Inside the Beltway Conservative Pundits: You’re not Martyrs

Ok, I’ll bite. There is no reason that you (Peggy Noonan), Christopher Buckley, Kathleen Parker, David Brooks, or any other member of the self-anointed conservative intelligentsia should be surprised at the amount of anger outpouring from your readership towards you when you write articles that appear to “pile on” an already struggling conservative campaign effort.

You dutifully qualify every criticism of Palin with some snippet along the lines of “I’m not doing this to get invited to all the cool parties,” yet the first thing you do once you’ve been booed off stage by your own readership is exactly that - you show up onto some sort of liberal haven like Hardball or The Colbert Report to apologize for how stupid and ignorant your own political movement is. You claim that your articles against the McCain campaign are written out of some concern that true conservative principles are dying, yet you express your disagreement by cheering on a man [Obama] who supports out-in-the-open socialism. You all claim that you are wholly invested in traditional bread-and-butter conservatism, yet all of your actions contradict such claims.

[...]

Let’s make this clear: when you’re getting bombarded with angry emails from your subscribers, you know, the people who pay you money to write stuff that they want to read, [emphasis original] you don’t have any right to call their treatment “unfair” when you’re the one being a duplicitous asshole. Just a thought.

Mark Steyn adds:

So, when a conservative pundit mocks Wasilla, he's mocking conservatism as it's actually lived, as opposed to conservatism as a theoretical fantasy playground for the purposes of cocktail-party banter.

As the son of a preacher, and having once (in my teen years) been a quasi-anarchist, by-default libertarian, but now an autodidact-conservative let me just say this: I grew up grokking the practical points of conservatism long before I read WFB, Adams or Hayek. And by most accounts, so did Sarah Palin. From my perspective, that's a point in her favor.

UPDATE: Ross Douthat responds to Steyn. I'm still with Steyn and even Ace. While I, too, find it troubling that first-term governors Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal seem to be our only conservative back benchers these days, you can't deny that your Palin bashing neatly helps your future as a relevant pundit voice in the event of an Obama win, Ross. Either acknowledge that, or move on to other topics, buddy.

Chris Buckley quits National Review

2008-10-14T22:42:00.003-04:00

Meh. As a subscriber, I've been reading his back page columns for a few months now, and to tell the truth I wasn't all that impressed. He seemed to be going for a kind of aimless, purposefully digressive writing style better suited to his novels than to the pages of NR. I really miss Mark Steyn's concise, witty pieces and look forward to Steyn's return to the back page.

As for Christopher's "argument" for why he's voting Barack Obama? What can I say? Even at this late stage, Chris still thinks Obama will see the folly of his leftist ways and tack to center... but only after America elects him President and Commander in Chief. Um... No. That's a fantasy, Chris.

Stick to novels.

The year is 02008...

2008-10-04T01:08:00.002-04:00

... you know, so as to avoid any potential Y10K computer failures.

The Long Now Foundation takes a broad, general view of things. Take a moment out of your hectic schedule and leisurely peruse some of their projects:

- The Clock of the Long Now

- The Long Bet

Dirty look received digitally

2008-10-04T00:31:00.003-04:00

I was chatting online last night with an old acquaintance of mine, letting him vent a bit about the "outrageous busybodies" running his subdivision's Neighborhood Association. "They won't let me decorate for holidays, they won't allow me to go away on vacation for more than a couple of weeks lest my grass gets too tall!"

I wrote, "Hey, now. What's so wrong about a little 'community organizing'? Aren't these hardships of yours all for the 'greater good'?"

He's a hard-core Obama fanatic. And I may have lost a friend at that moment.

Yay again!

2008-10-01T23:28:00.003-04:00

Here's to hoping this will become a regular thing at Blogging Heads. Peter and Jonah have a wonderful... call it a chemistry. Their original appearances thogether "back in the day" are a big reason why I still watch BloggingHeads.tv these days.

Negative Noonan

2008-09-19T00:21:00.003-04:00

Read it and weep:

Why It's Getting Mean
Supporters of both candidates doubt their man is up to the job.

The financial crisis changes the entire shape and feel of the presidential election. It isn't just bad news, it's bad news that reveals what many people deep down feared, and hoped not to see revealed: that the huge and sprawling financial system of Wall Street is maintained essentially on faith, mood and assumption; that its problems are deep; that at some level the system looks to have been a house of cards. It isn't just bad news; it's deep bad news that reaches into the heart of widespread national anxiety. [...]

What if neither of them is the right man? What if neither of them is equal to the moment? What if neither party is equal to the moment?

"What if neither of them is the right man?" Frankly, that's my upfront position. McCain has locked up my vote, not by virtue of being my first choice, but by virtue of being my last acceptable choice. I take issue with Peggy's doom and gloom pronouncment on the economy. Yes we'll be stuck (barring impeachable offense) for at least four years with either McCain or Obama... but the economy is certain to improve so long as Americans continue doing what Americans do so well... make money by converting low-worth resources into high-worth products and services. And I just don't see that ending! No matter who wins office.

Yay!

2008-09-10T00:55:00.002-04:00

Peter and Jonah, together again, at Blogging Heads.

I really miss "What's Your Problem."

WKND LNK DMP

2008-08-30T21:24:00.002-04:00

It's your weekend link dump:

Slow motion lightening, cool ~ Scrappy ball makes good ~ Check your credit. It's important, yet free! ~ Everything's a "right." Everything. ~ And finally, your next Vice President... early days.

Stones for brains

2008-08-26T22:42:00.005-04:00

Oh dear.

Grossly overweight children may be taken from their families and put into care if Britain’s obesity epidemic continues to escalate, council chiefs said yesterday.

The Local Government Association argued that parents who allowed their children to eat too much could be as guilty of neglect as those who did not feed their children at all.

[...]

There have been some reported cases where children under 10 have weighed up to 14st (89kg) and a three-year-old has weighed 10st – putting them at a high risk of diabetes and heart disease. Only last week a 15-year-old girl in Wales was told by doctors that she could “drop dead at any moment” after tipping the scales at 33st.

At first, I didn't know what to make of these alien numbers. But then I hearkened back to my public school education, and remembered that a gram of cocaine was "quite a lot" according to breathless crime-beat reporters, but "not a lot" according to the older kids in the school yard. Aha! Thus begins a bit of reference! I later learned in chemistry class that one gram of water has a volume of one milliliter and a thousand grams (or one liter) weighs one kilogram. I also remembered a very helpful commercial from the early nineties explaining how the average menstruating woman retains "up to 2.2 pounds" of water (while the spokesmodel held up a visual aid that looked exactly like a one liter bottle) and suddenly I realized I had all the tools to decipher this article.

I crunched these numbers through complex and arcane formulas I call "common sense" and "love of freedom" and came to the shocking conclusion that British officials want to take fat kids away from their parents. Their reasoning apparently has something to do with magic "stones."

(Via: JG)

UPDATE: Via Annie, check out Junkfood Science, a blog of "critical examinations of studies and news on weight, health ... for readers not afraid to question and think critically to get to the truth."

Or, you could just move to Britain and wait for the government to sort your life out for you.

Sugar in August

2008-08-02T14:19:00.002-04:00

Nanny knows best

2008-07-27T13:02:00.002-04:00

Ribeye in the pan

2008-07-19T08:15:00.005-04:00

... with butter.

"Mad Men." Set in New York at a 60's advertising firm, writer/creator Matthew Weiner (The Sopranos) proves himself a master of "moody." The series is driven mostly by the crazy atmosphere he's created. The sets are as clouded with cigarette smoke as they are with rampant racism, sexism, and casual antisemitism and all well lubricated with alcohol. It's through this cloud that his complex (read "tragically neurotic") characters walk to and and fro, searching for wealth, sex and happiness at home and office.

Often funny but also often painful to watch, it is, nonetheless, fascinating.

- NPR interview with Matt Weiner
- Season One DVD (with extensive commentaries)
- Clips and behind the scenes featurettes on AMC.com

"Mad Men" returns for season two Sunday, July 29th.

Household details

2008-07-13T14:22:00.002-04:00

Corbett's Fine Dining: Quickie Review

2008-07-04T12:44:00.007-04:00

Ask for "table two" in the window seat as it affords the best vantage for people-watching, definitely get the rabbit ravioli.

If yer lucky, not only will you enjoy the food, a party of gangsters straight out of the cast of Sopranos will file in before your eyes, in outfits complete with purple jackets and fishnet tights. I'm not joking. It was a great night out.

***

Weekend Link Dump:

Inside "A Day In The Life" ~ Compare and contrast... Refusing to choose between them is a valid option and don't let anyone tell you otherwise ~ Andy McKee, guitar original ~ Slide Bone Guitar (Thanks to N8tastic) ~ Buddy Guy and some British dude do "Sweet Home Chicago" live ~ Inside "Gravity" I still don't know how I feel about John Mayer's music, but I like this song... and I like that he can laugh at himself, a rare personality trait among celebrities

War on smoking continues

2008-06-28T11:46:00.003-04:00

"Fire safe cigarettes" (FSCs, cigarettes with bands of thicker paper designed to snuff out the burning tobacco when not actively inhaled) are now the only legal cigarettes for sale in my state of Kentucky. The fact that many smokers (including myself) find them less enjoyable wasn't a consideration. It's a done deal. Smokers aren't real people, you see. Their preferences are free to be discarded in favor of the public good.

'Fire-safe' cigarette laws spread quickly

Cigarettes sold in 21 states will be self-extinguishing after a strikingly high 15 states passed new laws this year to combat smoking-related blazes, the No. 1 cause of home-fire deaths.

“Fire-safe” cigarettes, manufactured with extra bands of paper to snuff the flame if a lighted cigarette isn’t being smoked, even received unanimous approval in the tobacco stronghold of Kentucky.

I'm astonished that I'd never even heard about this flanking maneuver against my daily smoking habits until after it was cemented in state law. Sure, I noticed a change in my cigs, but I thought I'd just purchased a rare bad carton that had somehow slipped through quality control. But apparently the popularity of this measure has even astonished it's own proponents!

Even advocates of the legislation were startled by its swift progress this year.

“No one really even had to testify” before the legislature, said Richard Peddicord, assistant state fire marshal for Kentucky, where a nation-high 28.6 percent of adults smoke, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.

After years of failing to get fire-safe cigarette legislation through Congress, advocates turned to the states, forming the Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes and enlisting the aid of firefighters and local officials.

"No one really even had to testify" before this feel-good measure was passed unanimously. That's telling. A sign of the times we live in. Your moral betters have spoken, smokers. I have to note that, well... fat lot of good the "Big Tobacco" lobby has done us. Make no mistake, smokers are ones who pay the costs of this ideological battle. Sin taxes imposed by do-gooder, anti-tobacco activists increase the cost of a pack, certainly, but we also pay the salaries of those who argue on the tobacco customer's behalf. We're hit twice in the wallet, and it wasn't us who started this fight.

So, be you a smoker or not, please don't let anyone lecture you on the evils of Big Tobacco and their underhanded ways, without thinking of the restrictions (all too easy! "No one really even had to testify!" ) placed on smokers by anti-smoking activists.

Previous posts on this subject here, and here.

***

First ever Weekend Link Dump:

The Biochemists' Songbook (Thanks, Mags) ~~~ Lebowski Fest - July 12th ~~~ Even the Romans played D&D ~~~ Man Cards (Thanks to Tim Blair) / Who doesn't love Remo Williams? (audio interview) ~~~ "Bo Dudley" Heh.

Switching format

2008-06-21T16:43:00.002-04:00

This blog needs a shot in the arm. So I'm going to a weekly format. Counterintuitive, I know. One post each weekend covering the stories, fun links, and personal details that I (and hopefully you) find interesting. New post tomorrow.

This is partly because I've found full-time employment not conducive to daily blogging, partly because I'm lazy, partly because this blog has already achieved it's original purpose and I hate repeating myself.

See you there...

Instaquote of the day

2008-06-06T13:03:00.002-04:00

"If you rely on media reports to set your household financial strategy, you'll have the financial equivalent of bipolar disorder."

Our household isn't particularly feeling the economic crunch (which isn't to say that others' aren't struggling; they are) but like Glenn, I feel the need to send the occasional "brush-back pitch" at these media bombardment campaigns of constant doom and gloom, lest they become self-fulfilling prophesies.

On the value of waltzing bears

2008-05-28T17:30:00.002-04:00

I didn't want to smile. But then I saw the Young@Heart chorus do their "Stayin' Alive" medley and I was hooked.

This is just good clean fun, y'all.

Trailer for the movie is here. It's in Lexington this week, and at Baxter Avenue Theater in Louisville right now. Given the price of gas these days, it'll be cheaper for me to wait for the DVD, though.

(via it's vintage, duh)

"Cook through blogging"

2008-05-28T14:46:00.002-04:00

You know, I've got this book of beer recipes...

Hmm! Gonna have to give it some careful consideration.

Waits zen

2008-05-28T01:57:00.002-04:00

On frosty relations

2008-05-28T01:37:00.003-04:00

Scott McClellan, former White House Press Sec, has a new book out soon. While I respect the impulse that drove him to serve his country...

Well...

Muslim polygamy in America

2008-05-28T00:27:00.002-04:00

NPR:

"Legally, they're invisible," says Julie Dinnerstein, a senior attorney for Sanctuary for Families. "If you are the second or third or fourth wife, that marital relationship is not going to be recognized for immigration purposes. It means if your husband is a citizen or green card holder, he can't sponsor you. It means if your husband gets asylum, you don't get asylum at the same time. The man is always going to be in a position of greater power."

That's pretty much my view. Polygamy of all stripes is fundamentally anti-female. And, with that rather important point out of the way, I tell you the rest is interesting, too. Check it out.

(Via: HA Headlines)

The dream is dead

2008-05-19T17:31:00.006-04:00

... or, why I weep for the eminent demise of our liberties.

Tim Harford has penned an utterly fascinating/depressing piece (with links to research studies) for Slate called "The $20 Pack: Why Smokers Are Happier When Cigarettes Cost More."

Nowhere in it does he mention the sovereignty of the individual, once heralded as the backbone of the American Experiment. We're all doomed, you know that, right?

(Via: Insty)

UPDATE: Related. Not that I care all that much over what contortions the Dems put themselves though in service to their Gaia worship, but I have to ask... will there be a smoking area? Just how far is the trek to the back of the parking lot?

Match box sleeves

2008-05-18T14:48:00.003-04:00

While I was at the NRA convention yesterday, my wife went yard sale hunting and bought me these wonderful, wooden match box sleeves.

She knows me well. I love antique boxes, smoking paraphernalia, and bargains. These are a $2 trifecta of happiness.

May 16th 2008

2008-05-07T15:12:00.003-04:00

... will forever be the day I went from 2nd amendment wuss to NRA member. A friend and I plan to to attend the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting in Louisville this month. It's gonna be fun. I hope Nugent brings his guitar.

I will bring along my camera and do a little photoblog report.

UPDATE: We spent Saturday at the expo center, lusted mightily over the Kimber, H&K, and Springfield Armory booths, bought some pocket folders at the Ka-Bar table, and had a pleasant day all around. Sorry, no photos to show you. This being my first NRA event, I didn't really know what to expect. So the camera stayed in my pocket all day.

Hopefully Dawn will have more from the political end of things.

Another Cali pacifist fights back

2008-05-03T03:48:00.003-04:00

... and is pictured in the L.A. Times on her knees wearing a hurt expression. Am I the only one that finds this really, really creepy?

Can't say I care much one way or the other about "loyalty oaths" for prospective employees of the California public school system. But that picture gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies. She claims she's a victim of discrimination by the evil state, yeah yeah yeah, I got that from the text. You couldn't picture her standing upright? Chin held high in the face of adversity? I wonder... was this pose the idea of Wendy Gonavor or the L.A. Times?

(Via: The Volokh Conspiracy)

Toy joy

2008-05-02T15:44:00.001-04:00

You're waiting for the face ripple.

I'm easily amused

2008-04-29T21:40:00.002-04:00

This is the cork for Smoking Loon pinot noir.

Animal art

2008-04-28T02:05:00.002-04:00

I'm not buying this for a hot second. Calling shenanigans, I am.

Give me some good ol' fashioned BBQ schtick. That I'll buy.

(Via: HA for the first vid, Ace for the second.)

All pork considered

2008-04-25T14:28:00.003-04:00

Pork chops and apple sauce?

***

Drew Carey defends bacon dogs. Bottom line? Government can't stop the bacon. It's too strong.

***

Bacon Salt - "We're on a quest to make everything taste like bacon." And check out Operation Bacon Salt - "...an initiative to provide bacon salt to the men and women serving overseas..." A worthy cause if ever there was one.

***

glumbert - Jim Gaffigan loves bacon

***

Bacon Vodka

UPDATE: Bacon Wallet, Bacon Band Aids, and the Bacon is Meat Candy Bacon Club. I just became a member. Got a favorite porcine link? Drop it in the comments. All hail the magical meat animal!

Life imitates art

2008-04-25T13:18:00.002-04:00

From the AP:

New church holds service in bar to reach new people

SIDNEY, Ohio -- Another round and amen! Beer was on tap and a mechanical bull inspired the sermon as a new church held its inaugural service in a western Ohio bar.

The Country Rock Church drew about 100 people to Sunday night's meeting at the Pub Lounge in Sidney, 35 miles north of Dayton.

The barroom church is an offshoot of Sidney United First Methodist Church, whose head pastor says he's been looking for creative ways to reach people in unconventional places.

Sounds familiar!

More Tim Wilson here.

(Via: Paladin's regular Dojo Info series)

Capital idea!

2008-04-23T11:06:00.002-04:00

Tom Sowell, on paying for college:

Another option would be to allow students to sign enforceable contracts by which lenders would pay their college or university expenses in exchange for a given percentage of their future earnings.

That way, students would be issuing stocks to raise capital, the way corporations do, instead of being limited to borrowing money to be paid back in fixed amounts -- the latter being equivalent to issuing corporate bonds.

Not only would this get the conscripted taxpayers out of the picture, it would also make it unnecessary for parents to go into hock to put their children through college.

Still, the financially poorest student in the land could get money to go to college, with a good academic record and a promising career from which to pay dividends on the lender's investment.

More fundamentally, it would confront the prospective college student with the full costs of all the resources required for a college education.

Question though, as I have not studied the figures... How much "human capital contracting" is already going on? Our local Kroger markets have tuition reimbursement programs for students at culinary school, and UPS has a similar program. And wasn't there an popular TV series whose entire premise turned on the idea of repaying investors the cost of a medical degree?

Is Tom suggesting we bring back a proven idea, or is he re-inventing the wheel here? I honestly don't know, but I think it's an intriguing, market-based idea. I'll investigate some more.

(Via: Phi Beta Cons blog UPDATE: which links this CATO analysis, which says MyRichUncle.com is the only outfit actively brokering private loans of the type Sowell mentions)

My libertarian nightmare

2008-04-22T01:43:00.007-04:00

I'm hard pressed to think of even one bill to come out of Congress in the past four years that made me proud of the excellent and needful work of the legislature. Not one.

I can think of plenty that made me embarrassed or angry, though. And now this abomination:

Cynicism and Big Tobacco

A bill expected to be voted on soon would impose new restrictions on marketing, raise cigarette taxes, and police the ingredients in tobacco products, including nicotine levels. Any reckless FDA policy is bound to be popular, and sure enough, the bill has 220 co-sponsors in the House and 54 in the Senate, including all three Presidential contenders.

This is all phenomenally cynical, even for Congress. Since the 1964 Surgeon General's report, the health consequences of this hazardous if legal product have been ubiquitous, which no doubt accounts for the 58% plunge in smoking among U.S. adults. The FDA tobacco gambit is explainable only because the politicians have dumped public health for public revenue.

The editorial goes on to point out that this scheme protects Philip Morris and the other biggies in the industry from future shakedowns by giving them a list of rules to follow. They will be able to point to scrupulous record keeping (read those words while imagining the sarcasm fairly dripping off the screen) and avoid all future prosecution. Naturally they love this proposal. It's protectionist in other ways, as well. Any new product would require extensive (and expensive) pre-market testing and approval thereby starving smaller competitors.

And mandating "safer" products completely contradicts the point of Congress' attack on tobacco in the nineties:

Initiated by Janet Reno and continued by the Bush Administration, the federal suit argued that the industry committed fraud by falsely implying that light or low-tar cigarettes were healthier than standard smokes. Now Congress wants the FDA to mandate less nicotine and tar – the very practices it once claimed to find so odious.

I've written before here and on other blogs about how silly this country has gotten over tobacco. It's the modern day "demon rum." We've turned its use into a synonym for "weak moral character" and that has opened up a plethora of shallow excuses for un-American behavior. Big companies turn to unethical business practices in order to protect their market share in the face of whithering extortion attempts by moralizing health nuts. Government, prone to meddling anyway, jumps onboard with sin taxes and regulation, and as the above editorial points out, incoherent and cynical regulation, at that. Local and state governments impose blanket bans in public instead of encouraging the real solution to second hand smoke; proper ventilation.

I tell you it really rankles me that a plant (a simple freakin' plant!) has become the excuse for so many humans to inflict so much pain and suffering on their fellow Americans. I guess it's just further proof there's a dark side to human nature.

A late night rumination on vodka conniseurship

2008-04-21T00:08:00.002-04:00

We're calling it "The Sophisticate."

Double shot of Absolute Raspberry vodka poured over ice, topped with one 12 oz can of Canada Dry Raspberry Sparkling Water. It'll be especially tasty come Summer.

Earthquake

2008-04-18T05:46:00.004-04:00

Why, if I didn't know any better, I'd say we just had a minor earthquake!

Certainly woke me up!

UPDATE: Yup. A quake. A quick basement check reveals no new cracks. The dog is freaked out, of course. But no interruptions in power, gas or internet.

Bitter beer face

2008-04-16T01:25:00.003-04:00

I find the Red State Update guys pretty hit or miss. But this is out of the park!

Pride and embarrassment

2008-04-11T08:52:00.009-04:00

I'm proud to have served in the military with a man like silver star recipient, and medal of honor nominee, David Bellavia. I'm equal parts embarrassed to share a first name with Keith Olbermann.

Anyone with an ounce of perspective knows exactly what Bellavia intended to convey with these words:

"Fortunately, I have the privilege, the distinct privilege today, of introducing a true American hero who defies political norms in Washington. Sen. John McCain has spent a lifetime in service to our nation. His example of unwavering courage is a model for every American. Rest assured that men like Senator McCain will be the goal and the men that my two young boys will emulate and admire. You can have your Tiger Woods, we've got Senator McCain."

Bellavia here is lamenting the awkward and difficult transition phase society is going through, right now. We are transitioning from a draft-era, "citizen soldier" military to a leaner, all volunteer, high-tech "warrior class" model in which only a few Americans serve, and fewer still will go on to serve in public office. Our emerging warrior class obviously worries about future representation in civilian government. After all, in our American system, civvies are the bosses over even Generals.

With the nation at war, the threat of another 9/11 style attack, and a seemingly never ending election cycle, these are stressful times all around. But I'm confident that America still loves her warriors in the military, and that we'll get through this transition eventually. It will take time and effort, and it will get messy and rude and frustrating at times.

Keith Olberdouche on the other hand, hears racism in Bellavia's comments. Well, actually he doesn't hear racism. Keith is stupid, but not that stupid. He merely says he hears racism because he wants nothing more than to smear the eventual Republican nominee with the serious charge of racism.

Or maybe, and I'm just thinking out loud here... Keith here has made Tiger into the victim of a racial slur that never actually occurred. Why does Keith hate Tiger Woods? Is it because he's black?

(Via: Hot Air and J.D. Johannes)

Kling on "financial power"

2008-04-08T15:05:00.003-04:00

Inequality and Excess:

What the super-wealthy have that the merely wealthy do not have is more financial power. When it comes to deciding which causes are going to receive money, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have more power than other people. Which is exactly the power that politicians have.

Thus, the comparison between legislators and the super-rich is actually quite apt. Both are able to exert an unusually large level of control over which worthy causes receive money. Financially, wealthy people and politicians have the same type of power. The difference is that politicians have much, much more of it, by orders of magnitude.

Which is why ethics are important. Consider the new phenomenon of international, super-rich Non Governmental Orgs (which need staffers, and the only pool of qualified applicants with experience wielding that kind of financial power are ex-legislators) and one starts to want only "good" men and women holding any kind of public office. Character really does matter in politics. It's not enough to say, "Well, he may be a moral cretin, but at least he's a competent administrator." The stakes are just too high. We're handing over the keys to something just too valuable. We can't afford not to question the character of wannabe politicians.

Today's dog-catcher is tomorrow's judge is tomorrow's senator is the future director of a multi-billion dollar NGO with the power to turn out the economic lights of a small country.

(Via: Insty)

I prefer A.E. Housman over Kipling

2008-04-08T14:26:00.004-04:00

... but I'll certainly take Kipling over the NYT!

Why I do not like The New York Times, Section 10, Chapter 687

And speaking of endangering American military personnel, I wonder how Ms. Kantor and her editors feel about the second reason Mr. McCain gave for not talking publicly about his son’s service [as a Marine in Iraq]? Ms. Kantor notes that “The McCains declined to be interviewed for this article, which the campaign requested not be published.” But she published it anyway. What if, God forbid, some harm comes to the junior McCain? Would she feel badly about that? Would she think, “Gee, perhaps I should not have published details about the military service of a son of a prominent politician?” I doubt it.

Maybe one day I'll warm up to Rudyard. This is from Kimball's essay in the New Criterion:

Kipling was above all the laureate not of Empire, but of civilization, especially civilization under siege.

Socialism sells!

2008-04-08T13:30:00.002-04:00

David Boaz addresses our uniquely American socialist/capitalist schizophrenia in the WSJ:

Starbucks and 'Laissez Faire'

Starbucks's company policy is this: "We review each Card before printing it to make sure it meets our personalization policy. We accept most personalization requests, but we can't honor every one. Some requests may contain trademarks that we don't have the right to use. Others may contain material that we consider inappropriate (such as threatening remarks, derogatory terms, or overtly political commentary) or wouldn't want to see on Starbucks-branded products."

Is the phrase "laissez-faire" threatening? Only to officious bureaucracy, I would think. So, it must be that the phrase is considered to be "inappropriate" by corporate Starbucks.

Socialist chic sells shirts, or in this case, coffee cards. (Sorry, I've an unconscious habit of alliteration. I'll try to work on that.)

Zomblog

2008-04-07T11:55:00.004-04:00

New blogroll addition in the column to your (far!) left. Zomblog watches Berkeley, so you don't have to.

Don't miss that first post. Code Pink is a whole 'nuther level of crazy. It's... um... it's a spectacle. Full-on, drive-by weirdness has always been Zombie's bread and butter, so you don't want to miss this.

(Via: DPU and Nice Deb)

Color me not amused

2008-04-06T22:37:00.006-04:00

As Steve Martin in the movie LA Story said in sloughing off the prospect of an interview, "[It] would be fascinating, by the way, because of the interesting word musements I structure." Great comedy. I recommend it.

This LA Times op-ed? Not so much.

So whenever I come across an Arabic word mired in English text, I am momentarily shocked out of the narrative. Of course, English has pilfered numerous bits of Arabic -- "artichoke," "zero," "genie," "henna," "saffron," "harem," "tariff" -- but the appropriation was so long ago that few English speakers know the words' origin. These dictionary entries were probably introduced by the Moors into Spanish first, and then by the Spaniards into English.

If someone insults my "mongrel" English tongue, all I ask is that he do so with elan. (That's a French word, by the way.) I caught a whiff of the same condescension from some (thankfully, not all) of my Arabic language instructors. Did you know that Jazz and Rock and Roll were Arabic inventions? It's true! "Guitar" is an Arabic word. Born of Moorish conquest, long live Al Malek!

(Via: Hot Air)

RELATED: More grist for the stereotype mill!

19% now up to 20%

2008-03-31T15:41:00.002-04:00

Best $30 bucks I've spent yet this year.

I'm not scared of your knife

2008-03-31T12:57:00.002-04:00

Okay, this video warmed my heart.

And no, Glenn. Reporters do not know the difference between Army and Marine. All things military are equally "icky." Our military changes the world with violence, journalists change the world with words. Why would they stoop to learning the intricacies of an inferior system?

Beer update

2008-03-30T14:21:00.003-04:00

Project Red Ale an unqualified success!

Operation Raspberry Lager underway. I'll post a photo log of the third batch next month. Promise.

Frittata Sunday

2008-03-30T14:16:00.003-04:00

This is quickly becoming our Sunday morning staple:

6 eggs, beaten
1-ounce Parmesan, grated
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon butter
1/2 cup chopped roasted asparagus
1/2 cup chopped country ham
1 tablespoon chopped parsley leaves

Preheat oven to broil setting.

In medium size bowl, using a fork, blend together eggs, Parmesan, pepper, and salt. Heat 12-inch non-stick, oven safe saute pan over medium high heat. Add butter to pan and melt. Add asparagus and ham to pan and saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Pour egg mixture into pan and stir with rubber spatula. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until the egg mixture has set on the bottom and begins to set up on top. Sprinkle with parsley.

Place pan into oven and broil for 3 to 4 minutes, until lightly browned and fluffy. Remove from pan and cut into 6 servings. Serve immediately.

So far we've done ham and mushroom, and tomato onion and herb. A tastier breakfast has yet to be invented.

Don't drive angry

2008-03-27T13:56:00.002-04:00

If your mortgage company has an annoying automated phone system that burns up your cell minutes and requires several tries to get a real person on the line, whatever you do, don't pound your fist on the computer desk.

You'll just knock over your Coke into the amplifier of your $400 sound system. Take it from me. I know. From whence. I speak.

I'm switching to bourbon and Coke, now.

Energy bill in the balance

2008-03-27T09:53:00.003-04:00

While I remain committed to fighting nanny state mandates wherever they rear their hydra-like heads, I'm still a cheapskate who'd like to reduce his energy bill to near zero. Saving Mother Earth is just gravy.

Our utilities expenses aren't very much (with new construction comes new insulation, new code rated furnace and such) but like with stealth technology, now that we have our radar cross section down so low, I can't resist playing around with it.

I'm considering experimenting with the following:

- Compact fluorescent bulbs. Controversial, ugly, mercury ridden, but hey! If it'll knock a few bucks off my utilities, I'll give them a shot. My research is still ongoing, but here's my plan so far. 1)Switch outdoor lights over to CFL, 2)buy several different brands of indoor CFLs and long life incandescents for some home comparison tests. Where we go from there really depends on our test results. Can anyone recommend a brand of CFL you've had luck with?

- Inline water heater. I've crunched the numbers and I just can't justify replacing our current water heater with a new "on demand" unit until the current one reaches the end of its life. But I'm excited by this new technology, and as a stop gap, I want to get a thermal blanket.

- Catch barrel for sump runoff. Our basement was carved out of solid bedrock. We're basically sitting inside a granite bowl beneath the water table. This means that in wet weather, the sump pump collects and discharges a bunch of water... water that just goes to waste in the woods behind the house. Come Summer, I then water the lawn with water I pay for out of the city spout. Surely there's a way to make one source of water pay for the other. Developing...

"Be Real" part II

2008-03-26T13:14:00.003-04:00

There's probably an essay post on "unrequited love" and good art in that last post, but I need to mull it over a bit. Today I've bookshelves to build. In the meantime, here's a couple of vids in the same vein:

"Be Real"

2008-03-25T18:52:00.002-04:00

What a great song! I love the chorus:

So be real/
I'm tired of your inconsistencies/
Even though I know/
What you do to me/
Makes me strong

all set to a sexy, smoky blues.

(Via: VodkaPundit.)

Frontline folly

2008-03-25T08:34:00.003-04:00

Jules Crittenden reviews PBS Frontline's "Bush's War."

God! How I hate that phrase. Bush's war. As if, should the war be lost, it would only be a rebuke of Bush's hubris and not a loss to America in general. I'm more than a little bit, um... invested in seeing our eventual victory in Iraq. I've got skin in this fight. That's not to discount the right of my fellow Americans to disagree with the reasoning behind the initial invasion, but Frontline's casual, dispassionate indifference? Bush's War? Sheesh!

Crittenden:

As television goes, it is a relatively comprehensive review of the major decisions and controversies of the Iraq war, with a little 9/11, Afghanistan precede. It makes some, though not many, attempts to be fair and thorough in presenting the perspectives of both sides. When you watch it, you might learn a few things. You’ll remember a lot. It won’t change your mind about anything.

We’ve got that out of the way. On to what’s wrong. I’m not sure in the space I can reasonably fill here, short of exceeding Frontline’s own 4:30-hour limit, that I’ll be able to enumerate them all. It’s daunting...

This is probably a good place to mention one of the (other) fundamental shortcomings of this documentary. It takes place in a fishbowl. A Washington D.C. fishbowl, in which history largely doesn’t exist. The Sept. 11 attacks are presented only as a horrific event that prompted Cheney and Rumsfeld to start rabidly pushing for the invasion of Iraq. The history of Saddam Hussein, and the many reasons why his removal made sense and still makes sense get lip service at best. The fact that the UN sanctions regime was on the verge of collapse, the danger that posed, and what was subsequently learned about Saddam’s plans to resume his weapons programs in that event get no airing. The questions that remain about what Saddam might have done with the dormant elements of his WMD programs and whether they were shipped to Syria, not mentioned. The positive geopolitical ramifications of the removal of Saddam Hussein … Libya’s capitulation and last summer’s revelation that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program after the invasion of Iraq, if only briefly … not part of the scope of this project. Presumably the recently released Pentagon study that found extensive contacts between Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agents and al Qaeda came out after this Frontline series was put to bed. But there is no reason to think Frontline, like most of the American media, wouldn’t just have reported the “no direct operational links” part.

I watched some of it last night, but the never-ending stream of NYT reporters interviewed wore thin after just 20 minutes. I decided Alton Brown's Good Eats on the Food Network was more worth my time.

Cactus Cuties

2008-03-25T08:01:00.001-04:00

(Via: GBW)

Tom Stoppard: Astute man

2008-03-23T17:27:00.007-04:00

Playwright Tom Stoppard pens an interesting (and beautifully written, of course) editorial in the London Times on his estrangement from the 60's counterculture:

By the mid1960s young people started off with more liberty than they knew what to do with, but confused it with sexual liberation and the freedom to get high so it all went to waste – wasted, that is, in a cultural revolution rather than social revolution.

On a related note, good art resists translation into another medium, or so my old film professor said. Ace hints at this here:

By the way, I have to be honest: [Stoppard's film] Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is good, cheeky fun, but it's a bit too cutesy and Pinteresque in its meta-ness, and, I have to say, a bit overrated. It's one part pure whimsy (Lewis Carroll does Hamlet) and one part intellectual airiness with a dollop of existentialism mixed in as a thickening agent. Good, but not great. Funny, but smile-funny and not laugh-funny. I like it, but I can't bullshit you and say it's the greatest movie ever made just because the author/director is on our side.

While I like the movie, R&G works much better on the stage, where the willing suspension of disbelief is easier. Much of that expectation of disbelief is written into the text, I think. Take Michael Crichton, whose novels always read like screenplays waiting for the camera to roll. Contrast Sunset Boulevard, which works better as a film than as musical farce. Finally, consider Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Fantastic work of radio fiction, works well in print, too. But I was ready to kill everyone involved with that disastrous movie!

It's not the only standard by which good art is judged,but "resists translation" is a good starting criterion.

Camp

2008-03-23T09:41:00.005-04:00

"Dead and Breakfast"

This DVD has been gathering dust on my shelf for over a year and I finally watched it with some friends last night.

Verdict? Every bit as good as the "Evil Dead" franchise... maybe even better. Bold words, I know. Check it out for yourselves.

UPDATE: Welcome fellow moronospherians!

And knowing is half the battle

2008-03-23T07:57:00.003-04:00

As far as I'm concerned, Mark Steyn's article today is the definitive word on Obama's pastor problem:

[L]ast week, Barack Obama told America: "I can no more disown [Wright] than I can disown the black community."

What is the plain meaning of that sentence? That the paranoid racist ravings of Jeremiah Wright are now part of the established cultural discourse in African-American life and thus must command our respect?

...

So much for the post-racial candidate.

I'm amending my comment over at Lee's ("The more I watch Obama, the less I know about him") to read the more I learn about Obama, the more annoyed I get. Or, as AllahPundit put it, "Partisanship aside, as much as I loathe his politics, I always liked Obama the man and believed that his devotion to racial reconciliation was sincere. I don’t anymore."

Count me among those fooled, too.

DC v Heller today

2008-03-18T12:49:00.002-04:00

DC vs. Heller will be heard before the Supreme Court today. Reason Magazine's Brian Doherty:

Meanwhile, on the east coast, failing to report the gun you didn't realize was lost or stolen will soon earn you jail time.

In a sneaky amendment to a crime bill, Pennsylvania gun control forces are pushing hard for legislation that would criminalize the failure to report guns that are either lost or stolen...

Ever heard the expression "Count the silverware"? If you're wealthy enough to have valuable silverware, it probably is a good idea to count it occasionally. Because guests can be dishonest. So can contractors, house painters, gardeners, cleaning people, etc. It would be unimaginable for anyone to propose making it a crime to fail to report stolen silverware, though...

Why single out guns unless the intent is to stigmatize them? I think that a law criminalizing non-reporting requires more than merely reporting a loss or a theft; by its nature it imposes an affirmative duty to monitor and count your guns on a regular basis or be a criminal (in much the same way that a law criminalizing the non-reporting of silverware would require counting the silver). But because it does not spell that out, I think it's unconstitutionally void for vagueness...

Emphases mine. And I agree totally.

UPDATE: Clayton Cramer has pics of blockbuster lines waiting to get into the Courtroom audience.

(Via: Glenn)

Also, Paul Cassell at The Volokh Conspiracy highlights some useful "original sources" for understanding the 2nd Amendment:

With Heller about to be argued, a lot of folks are debating what the Second Amendment means. But what does the historical record really show?

MORE: Randy Barnett weighs in at Opinion Journal:

However it is decided, Heller is already historic. For the first time in recent memory, the Supreme Court will consider the original meaning of a significant passage of the Constitution unencumbered by its own prior decisions. The majority and dissenting opinions in this case will be taught in law schools for years to come. Here's a layman's guide to the significance of the case...

(Also via Glenn)

UPDATE: CSPAN is playing the courtroom audio live.

(Via: Ace)

"Currently prohibited by cost and logistics"

2008-03-17T07:23:00.002-04:00

Yeah, but everyone knows that Bush is the real danger.

(Via: Gabe)

Must hug beer

2008-03-12T08:34:00.002-04:00

Welcome to my new hobby.

The first batch (a red ale) is bottled and should be ready in the next week or so.

More from the anti-recruitment house of horrors

2008-03-10T08:29:00.002-04:00

Once shocking, now predictable.

(Via: Ace)

UPDATE: For the record, I consider this judge's actions even more insidious than the bombing of the recruitment center in Times Square this past week. That bombing is an aberration from the American norm, while Mackel and her fellow travelers will go on quietly subverting recruitment efforts for years to come. Ultimately, they will do far more damage.

WFB has died

2008-02-27T23:46:00.002-05:00

William F. Buckley Jr., author, speaker, intellectual, and founder of National Review died today. In many ways, I owe my political education (such as it is, a work in progress still) to this one man. A shame I never got to meet him.

Kadnine reviews Indoctrinate U

2008-02-27T11:06:00.003-05:00

"Somewhere along the way, the Campus Free Speech Movement got killed by University regulations, and policies that are supposed to be ensuring tolerance and diversity are instead, being used to silence people with alternative views." - From Indoctrinate U

The other night I watched Evan Coyne Maloney’s documentary film, Indoctrinate U. It's quite good, I'm happy to report, and well worth your consideration. It's in limited distribution right now with screenings only in locations that demonstrate sufficient interest to make it commercially viable. But where there's demand, direct marketing technology manages a supply! It's available here for download, and well worth the $9.99. In fact, every paid download adds to its chances for a wider release.

Indoctrinate U highlights some of the more egregious examples of leftist academic orthodoxy enslaved to a fixed notion of "diversity." That is, diversity in everything but where it counts most, diversity of thought. Student Republicans are harassed, closet Republican faculty members dismissed, dissenting voices are shouted down, and all of it compared with wry irony to the heady days of the sixties and seventies and the Campus Free Speech Movement. The same student radicals fighting for a place in academic circles then, make up the intolerant, tenured "old guard" of today.

David Thompson makes an important point in his review of the film last week:

Despite Maloney’s own right-of-centre leanings, Indoctrinate U is surprisingly non-party political and, as FIRE’s Greg Lukianoff explains, many mainstream Democrats could well be shocked by how a supposed marketplace of ideas has become so intolerant and congealed.

True. (In honesty, his review is better than mine, and you should read it all.)

But I'll supplement his excellent piece with something Thompson doesn't touch upon. This is my first internet video download not paid for by corporate advertising sponsors, something I find remarkable. In that respect, Indoctrinate U is as much an experimental new financial model in film making as it is an indictment of academic misbehavior. And though it's an amateur film, it's not amateurishly produced. I've seen much worse produced with far higher budgets. In a podcast interview with Glenn and Helen Reynolds last year, Maloney detailed how digital cameras and high quality editing software is finally inexpensive enough to allow just about anyone to try a career in self-produced film. ("Ten years ago it would have been prohibitively expensive... It probably wouldn't have even crossed my mind to do it if the barriers had been that high.") Well, the results are impressive.

If you have the means and desire to do so, you can support his work by downloading from the Indoctrinate U store.

Three observations

2008-02-27T10:15:00.006-05:00

... and all of them rather bleak, I'm afraid.

The NYT reported yesterday that Congressional auditors are are a teensy bit unsettled over what they perceive as inadequate security precautions at nuclear research facilities on college campuses:

An unclassified version of the audit found uncertainty “about whether N.R.C.’s [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] assessment reflects the full range of security risks and potential consequences of an attack on a research reactor.” The audit said that the rules “may need immediate strengthening” and that more parts of research reactors were probably vulnerable to damage than the commission assumed.

[...]

But while power reactors are surrounded by fences and guard towers, the research reactors are often in buildings on densely populated campuses. Some have added concrete Jersey barriers to protect against truck bombs, and better doors. But the “first responders” who would arrive if intruders set off an alarm are most likely to be the unarmed campus police officers, the audit said.

Observation #1: Sleep tight, America!

But beyond the obvious, um... unnerving effect learning this has on me, it carries ramifications that go well beyond possible terrorist attacks.

I was talking second amendment rights with a friend a while back. I think I shocked him by saying that government should designate no weapon technologies as "too dangerous" for law-abiding citizens to possess, up to and including nuclear technology. As his eyes went wide I assured him that, just as I think police record checks are constitutional for pistol sales, civilians who could likewise prove responsibility (and a big, BIG part of that would be demonstrating secure facilities) should likewise be granted nuclear research licenses. I specifically had in mind academic research for medical tech and energy independence.

This new development weakens my argument, does it not? And by extension, threatens to close facilities devoted to medical and energy research?

Research reactors are a threatened species. With a long drought in the construction of power reactors, many universities have shrunk or closed their nuclear engineering departments.

And finally, in light of the recent high-profile school shootings, these security revelations should signal the death of "gun free zones" on school campuses. They won't, of course. Plenty of people will continue believing that gun control controls crime, rather than our ability to deter and stop criminals. And terrorists. And that saddens me.

(Via: Candace de Russy @ Phi Beta Cons)

Semicolons rule, Bush drools

2008-02-18T13:52:00.005-05:00

I agree with John. Is there some sorta rule whereby NYT writers are required to inject political drama?

The politics of punctuation. Who knew!?

UPDATE: Semicolon Celebration! Yeah. I'm a long-time grammar nerd. Not that I'm good at it, I just like talking about it.

Obama worship is reaching dizzying heights

2008-02-17T19:25:00.008-05:00

Like a car wreck, I just can't pull my eyes away from the spectacle.

Mark Steyn:

[If] you’re running for president not as an unexceptional first-term senator with a thin resume but as the new Messiah, the new Kennedy, the new Gandhi, the new Martin Luther King, you can’t blame folks for leaping ahead to the next stage in the mythic narrative... [The Ottowa Sun's Earl MacRae writes:] “Barack Obama is waving his arms. The crowd is cheering. I see the image I don’t want to see. I see the image that is the terrible sickness in the great republic. I see Barack Obama one minute smiling, the people crying his name. I see Barack Obama grab his chest and his eyes widen and his mouth opens and the crowd screams as Barack Obama, black candidate for the presidency of the United States of America, falls to the ground dead, an assassin’s bullet inside him.”

Jesus. Assassination porn so early? He's not even been elected yet!

James Taranto:

Obama has a talent for eliciting intense emotion--an ability that can be dangerous in a politician. What more does he have to offer? That's a hard question to answer, and it makes the prospect of an Obama presidency quite worrisome.

More Taranto:

What are we to make of Obama himself in the midst of all this adulation? A cynic would say that he is a manipulator if not a demagogue, exploiting the gullible to further his own ambitions. A more charitable view is that his intentions are all to the good, that he has simply figured out how to tap into a genuine desire for inspiration in politics, and that if elected he will use his political powers to do good for the country.

Each view seems plausible, but which is correct? Does anyone know Barack Obama well enough to say? And if not, isn't he the candidate who has a problem with authenticity?

Joel "I don't support the troops" Stein:

Obamaphilia has gotten creepy. I couldn't figure out if the two canvassers who came to my door Sunday had taken Ecstasy or were just fantasizing about an Obama presidency, but I feared they were going to hug me.

Joel. Frickin'. Stein. Even he's creeped out.

And check out Lee's video free-association exercise. It's spot on.

UPDATE: “It wasn’t very presidential, but it was really effective.”

Holy cow.